Elliot Rodger pounded on the sorority house front door while, inside, the young women he yearned to slaughter were preparing for another Friday night.

The awkward 22-year-old was obsessed with exacting "retribution" for what he experienced as a lifetime of social and sexual isolation, and had planned meticulously to target as many people as possible, authorities say. But here again, he was denied access to those he felt should worship him.

So when no one answered after several minutes, Rodger improvised.

Walking around the corner, authorities say, he found a group of students and opened fire, then took off in his black BMW through the streets of a college beach town buzzing with end-of-school-year energy. Within 10 minutes, the rampage was over and Rodger was dead, apparently after shooting himself.

As authorities reconstructed the events, they would conclude that Rodger had stabbed three victims in his apartment, shot and killed three others at random, and injured 13 more either with gunshots or a car that he used as a battering ram against bicyclists and skateboarders.

The mayhem unfolded within just one square mile near the University of California, Santa Barbara campus, but included 12 crime scenes.

The killings began with the stabbings in the apartment that Rodger rented, inside a two-story courtyard building fronted by palm trees. Authorities said Sunday that Cheng Yuan Hong, 20; George Chen, 19; Weihan Wang, 20, were killed Friday. All were from the San Francisco Bay Area and were students at the university. Hong and Chen were listed on the apartment lease, but it's unclear if Wang was a roommate or just visiting.

Rodger then drove five blocks to the Alpha Phi sorority house, authorities say.

In rambling writings he titled "My Twisted World," Rodger detailed his plan to kill his roommates and then invade the sorority, which he concluded symbolized the world that tortured him - beautiful women who would have spurned him in favor of the "obnoxious slobs" whom he also despised.

"I will sneak into their house at around 9:00 p.m. on the Day of Retribution, just before all the partying starts, and slaughter every single one of them," Rodger wrote. He knew the stucco house, with its neatly trimmed lawn and hedges, well: "I've sat outside it in my car to stalk them many times."

The double front door is heavy wood, with glass etchings of the sorority's shield and an electronic keypad to get in. Several women heard Rodger's "aggressive knocking," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said. "Fortunately, no one opened."

Moments later came the first 911 call.

It was 9:27 p.m., and Rodger had left the door and within 20 paces encountered a group that included Veronika Weiss and Katherine Cooper. He shot and killed the two UCSB students, and wounded a third.

All three were from the Delta Delta Delta sorority. The outgoing Cooper was preparing to graduate with a degree in art history; Weiss was a first-year student who had played water polo in high school.

Two blocks and three minutes later, Rodger was at a local deli. There, he got out of his car, went inside and shot and killed Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez. Friends described him as the kind of person who would welcome strangers into his home. He planned to study abroad and then go to law school.

At least four other customers were inside, and surveillance video shows them scrambling for cover while a bullet hits the glass of a refrigerator door.

Sheriff's deputies responded to the scene and saw Rodger's BMW leaving, but did not know the shooter was at the wheel.

Soon after, Rodger was driving on the left side of another road so that he could be close to the sidewalk as he fired at two pedestrians. And then, more shots - this time between Rodger and the first sheriff's deputy to engage with him.

Meanwhile, Ryan Ellis was wrapping up his Friday night service at Isla Vista Church, a makeshift house of worship inside a beach home on a street filled with students - and on Friday night, parties.

A few dozen young adults were getting ready for hamburgers when shots rang out. Fireworks, someone said.

"I knew right away it was gunshots," said Ellis, who said he had been a Navy combat engineer in Afghanistan.

He ran out to the street and saw a cyclist lying on the ground, but no car around. "He was pretty messed up, lying up against a vehicle," said Ellis.

The cyclist, who was not identified, was one of two whom Rodger intentionally smashed with his car.

By now, officers were yelling at people to go inside and friends were texting friends not to go out.

After shooting at more pedestrians, Rodger encountered four sheriff's deputies running through a park. Three returned fire, and a bullet hit Rodger in his left hip, authorities said.

Speeding on, Rodger accelerated and hit another cyclist, who was thrown onto the hood with a force that crumpled the windshield. Rodger's car then careened into several parked vehicles. It was there, in the car, that he apparently shot himself, leaving three semi-automatic handguns and 400 unspent rounds.

"The police dragged a body out of the car," said UC Santa Barbara senior Kyley Scarlet, who was in a house next to where the car came to a halt. "It was him."

Related Content

Here are the stories of the six victims, who were all students at UC Santa Barbara.

___

KATHERINE BREANN COOPER

Her friend Courtney Benjamin said Cooper, 22, was a painter with an outgoing side. The resident of Chino Hills, California, was about to graduate with a degree in art history.

"She was a self-proclaimed princess and I love her for that," Benjamin said. "And I know she has a crown on her head today."

Andrew Notohamiprodjo was Cooper's ballroom dance teacher three years ago and later supervised her as a teaching assistant in ballroom dance. Cooper was looking forward to graduating but planned to stay in town another year, he said.

"She was a lot of fun, super forward," he said.

Cooper graduated from Ruben S. Ayala High School in Chino Hills in 2010.

___

CHENG YUAN HONG

One of Elliot Rodger's roommates, Hong was among the first three killed. Sheriff's officials had mentioned at a Saturday press conference that Rodger contacted authorities to report his roommate had allegedly his stolen candles. Santa Barbara District Attorney Joyce Dudley says Hong was that roommate.

Hong, 20, was charged with petty theft, and Dudley said he pleaded guilty.

Hong was from San Jose, California.

___

GEORGE CHEN

Chen, 19, was among the three young men found dead with multiple stab wounds in Rodger's apartment, the Santa Barbara sheriff's office said. Chen, also from San Jose, was listed on the lease for the apartment along with Hong and Rodger.

___

WEIHAN WANG

Wang, 20, of Fremont, California, was among the three young men Rodger killed, authorities say. Investigators were trying to determine whether he was also a roommate or was visiting at the time of the attack.

___

CHRISTOPHER ROSS MICHAELS-MARTINEZ

Michaels-Martinez, 20, was an English major from Los Osos, California, who planned to go to London next year and to law school after graduation, his father, Richard Martinez, said at a Saturday press conference.

He pulled out a photo of his son as a small child in a Chicago Cubs baseball uniform and said they used to call him "mini-Sammy Sosa," referring to the former Cubs star.

"Chris was a really great kid," Martinez said. "Ask anyone who knew him."

Friends said Michaels-Martinez, who served as residential adviser at a dorm last year, was the kind of guy who would welcome strangers into his home.

___

VERONIKA ELIZABETH WEISS

Weiss, 19, was first-year student from Westlake Village, California.

"She was always a happy person," said Eric Pursley, who worked with Weiss at a Target store in Thousand Oaks last year.

Weiss was a water polo player at Westlake High School who earned league honors during her senior year, according to the Thousand Oaks Acorn newspaper.